^ On
a 22 February:2006 Terrorist
bombs at 06:55 (03:55 UT) nearly
destroys the golden-domed al-Askari
mosque in the shia holy city Samarra, Iraq. No one is killed. Widespread
violence causing hundreds of deaths would ensue. — (060616)

^2002
Cease-fire in Sri Lanka.
Thanks to Norway's mediation, Ranil Wickremesinghe, prime minister
of Sri Lanka (since December 2001) and Velupillai Prabhakaran, leader
of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, sign a cease-fire agreement
to become effective the next day. It provides that Norway will lead
a mission to monitor the cease fire, which will include Sweden, Denmark
and Finland. It provides for greater freedom of movement for unarmed
troops, an end to attacks on civilians, the unimpeded flow of all
non-military goods into Tamil-Tigers-held territory and the opening
of roads and railway lines. The Tigers are considered terrorists by
the US, UK, Canada and Sri Lanka itself. For the coming negotiations
to be successful, the Tigers would have to give up the goal, for which
they have been fighting since 1983: a separate nation for the country's
mostly Hindu Tamil minority. The government, dominated by the mainly
Buddhist Sinhalese majority, would have to grant the Tamils far greater
autonomy to rule themselves. President Chandrika Kumaratunga, who
will remain in office until 2005, though her coalition was defeated
by Wickremesinghe's in 2001 elections, and who was nearly killed in
a Tigers suicide bomb attack in 1999, immediately objected that the
negotiatiors had ignored "constitutional provisions to obtain presidential
approval, as well as not informing the cabinet of ministers and parliament."

^2001
The Turkish lira falls 29% against the dollar
The Turkish government abandoned exchange-rate
controls to fight the financial crisis made worse by dissension between
President Ahmet Necdet Sezer and Prime Minister Ahmet Necdet Sezer,
whom the President accuses of being soft on corruption. The
exchange rate closes at is 962'499 liras to $1 (having touched 1'020'000
during the day), compared with 685'400 lira the previous day. The
devaluation of the lira helps the stock market to recover part of
its 18% drop on 21 February. The inflation
rate stands at about 30%, down from 70% in 1999. Since Turkey began
its anti-inflation program backed by $11 billion in loans from the
International Monetary Fund, it had set daily currency rates for the
lira against the dollar and euro. Overnight lending rates reached
an annualized 7500% on 21 February. By dropping the exchange-rate
controls, Turkey is abandoning a key element of its economic stabilization
program. The government said it remains committed to the program,
including the rapid privatization of the state-owned fixed-line telephone
monopoly. The economic stabilization program has been under pressure
since November 2000 when foreign investors were scared off by allegations
of corruption in the banking sector.

2001 The first new Constitution
of the State of Vatican City since it was constituted by the 1929 Lateran
treaty, takes effect. It removes anachronisms such as the death penalty,
which has never been applied under the 1929 constitution, though it was
previously, with hangings as late as the pontificate of Pius IX.2000
La policía española detiene a siete personas en Barcelona y Tarragona por
su relación con las actividades presuntamente ilícitas de la asociación
Energía Universal y Humana, una de las "sectas prohibidas y peligrosas de
la Unión Europea".1999 Unos 40'000 agricultores
protestan en Bruselas por la reducción de ayudas tras la reforma de la Política
Agrícola Común.

1999
Monica Lewinsky interviews(1)
ABC News will air Monica Lewinsky's first television interview in
a two-hour special on 03 March, ABC News President David Westin announces.
In a tele-conference with reporters, Westin describes the interview,
conducted by veteran anchor Barbara Walters, as "educational."
"I learned this was a much more complicated and subtle story than
has been seen in the press," says Westin. Walters, who
is also on the tele-conference, describes Lewinsky as "full
and frank." "She doesn't paint a glorious picture of herself,"
Walters says. (2) A British television journalist
who secured another of the first interviews with Monica Lewinsky says
the interview would show the ordeal of a young woman "raped
by the American constitution.''

Jon Snow of Channel Four Television describes Lewinsky as "very
collected, very focused, with a photographic and excellent memory."
"She has a brilliant television presence and is very effective in
telling how she was raped by the American constitution,"
Snow tells a news conference. "She was
bursting to tell her story," Snow says. "She
was exceedingly isolated. She's been aggrieved at the picture that
emerged of her." Snow says 24-year-old Lewinsky was
very nervous at the start of the interview but that he felt that
it had been a cathartic experience for her to put across her point
of view after a year of frenzied media coverage.

The hour-long interview will be one of the first television interviews
with Lewinsky since her affair with President Clinton that brought
about his impeachment and Senate trial. The interview will be screened
on 04 March, less than 24 hours after Lewinsky talks to ABC television's
Barbara Walters.

Snow, whose channel paid 400'000 pounds ($600'000) for the Lewinsky
interview, says he interviewed Lewinsky Feb. 21 for eight hours
in her mother's penthouse overlooking New York's Central Park. Lewinsky
was emotional at times but did not cry, he says.

The interview was subject to restrictions imposed by independent
counsel Kenneth Starr, one being that Lewinsky was prohibited from
talking about the way she had been treated by him, Channel Four
officials say.

^1995
Cray introduces a new supercomputerCray Research Inc. presents
a new supercomputer, three-to-five-times faster than its predecessor. The
company, founded by early computer scientist Seymour Cray (who also worked
on UNIVAC, one of the first commercial computers) held about two-thirds
of the world market for supercomputers costing $5 million or more. Supercomputers
were the predecessor of microcomputers and are still used for military and
large business purposes. However, the demand for supercomputers rapidly
declined at the end of the Cold War. In
1957, Cray co-founded Control Data Corp., where he built the first computer
to use radio transistors instead of vacuum tubes. The transistors made the
machines more reliable and allowed for the miniaturization of components,
which enhanced the performance of desktop computers.In the 1960s, he designed
the world's first supercomputer at Control Data, then left in 1972 and co-founded
Cray Research Inc.There, he built the Cray-1 and Cray-2 supercomputers,
which helped the defense industry create sophisticated weapons systems and
the oil industry construct geographic models that predicted mineral deposits.At
his third company, Cray Computer Corp., he failed to raise $20 million for
operating costs and filed for bankruptcy in March 1995. It closed soon afterward.
In August, Cray started a new company called SRC Computers Inc.
Cray Inc. (NASD: CRAY), formed from the March 2000 merger of Tera Computer
Company and Cray Research, is the global market leader in high-end supercomputers.
But, one year later, it is still a gigaflop as far as profits are concerned,
just as its predecessor [see stock price charge above].
Cray Inc. is dedicated to helping customers solve the most-demanding, most-crucial
computing problems on the planet-designing the cars and trucks we drive,
creating new materials and life-saving drugs, predicting severe weather
and climate change, analyzing complex data structures, safeguarding national
security, and a host of other applications that benefit humanity by advancing
the frontiers of science and engineering.
Cray Inc. builds upon a rich history that extends back to 1972, when the
legendary Seymour Cray, the "father of supercomputing," founded Cray
Research. R&D and manufacturing were based in his hometown of Chippewa
Falls, Wisconsin; business headquarters were in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
The first Cray-1® system was installed
at Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1976 for $8.8 million. It boasted a
world-record speed of 160 million floating-point operations per second (160
megaflops) and an 8 megabyte (1 million word) main memory. The Cray-1's
architecture reflected its designer's penchant for bridging technical hurdles
with revolutionary ideas. In order to increase the speed of this system,
the Cray-1 had a unique "C" shape which enabled integrated circuits to be
closer together. No wire in the system was more than four feet long. To
handle the intense heat generated by the computer, Cray developed an innovative
refrigeration system using Freon.
In order to concentrate his efforts on design, Cray left the CEO position
in 1980 and became an independent contractor. As he worked on the follow-on
to the Cray-1, another group within the company developed the first multiprocessor
supercomputer, the Cray X-MP!", which was introduced in 1982. The Cray-2!"
system appeared in 1985, providing a tenfold increase in performance over
the Cray-1. In 1988, Cray Research
introduced the Cray Y-MP®, the world's first supercomputer to sustain
over 1 gigaflop on many applications. Multiple 333 MFLOPS processors powered
the system to a record sustained speed of 2.3 gigaflops.
Always a visionary, Seymour Cray had been exploring the use of gallium arsenide
in creating a semiconductor faster than silicon. However, the costs and
complexities of this material made it difficult for the company to support
both the Cray 3 and the Cray C90ä development efforts. In 1989, Cray Research
spun off the Cray 3 project into a separate company, Cray Computer Corporation,
headed by Seymour Cray and based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Seymour
Cray died of injuries suffered in an auto accident in September, 1996 at
the age of 71. The 1990s brought a
number of transforming events to Cray Research. The company continued its
leadership in providing the most powerful supercomputers for production
applications. The Cray C90!" featured a new central processor with
industry-leading sustained performance of 1 gigaflop. Using 16 of these
powerful processors and 256 million words of central memory, the system
boasted unrivaled total performance. The company also produced its first
"minisupercomputer," the Cray XMS system, followed by the Cray Y-MP EL series
and the subsequent Cray J90!".
In 1993, Cray Research offered its first massively parallel processing (MPP)
system, the Cray T3D!" supercomputer, and quickly captured MPP market
leadership from early MPP companies such as Thinking Machines and MasPar.
The Cray T3D proved to be exceptionally robust, reliable, sharable and easy-to-administer,
compared with competing MPP systems.
Since its debut in 1995, the successor Cray T3E!" supercomputer has
been the world's best selling MPP system. The Cray T3E-1200E system has
the distinction of being the only supercomputer to ever sustain one teraflop
(1 trillion calculations per second) on a real-world application. In November
1998, a joint scientific team from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the National
Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC), Pittsburgh Supercomputing
Center and the University of Bristol (UK) ran a magnetism application at
a sustained speed of 1.02 teraflops.
In another technological landmark, the Cray T90!" became the world's
first wireless supercomputer when it was unveiled in 1994. Also introduced
that year, the Cray J90 series has since become the world's most popular
supercomputer, with over 400 systems sold.
Cray Research merged with SGI (Silicon Graphics, Inc.) in February 1996.
In August 1999, SGI created a separate Cray Research business unit to focus
exclusively on the unique requirements of high-end supercomputing customers.
Assets of this business unit were sold to Tera Computer Company in March
2000.

^1994
CIA traitor is arrested
CIA operative Aldrich Ames is arrested for selling secrets to the
Soviet Union. Ames had access to the names and identities of all US
spies in Russia, and by becoming a double agent he was directly responsible
for jeopardizing the lives of CIA agents working in the Eastern bloc.
At least 10 men were killed after Ames revealed their identities,
and more were sent to Russian gulags. Maria del Rosario Casas Ames,
Aldrich's wife and an ex-CIA employee herself, was also charged for
her role in accepting approximately $2.7 million (the most the Soviets
ever paid a foreign spy) for providing the highly confidential information
to the KGB. It was the Ames' spending that finally led to their downfall,
but for many years no one questioned their ability to buy expensive
cars and homes (paid for with cash) on his government salary. Ames
picked up the cash at secret drops in the Washington, DC, area and
in unauthorized travels to Colombia and Venezuela.
Aldrich Ames was the biggest success of the Soviet Union's reinvigorated
espionage program. After the disastrous invasion of Afghanistan in
1979, the Russians decided that spying was their best bet for improving
their strategic position vis-à-vis the United States. Dimitri
Yakushkin was put in charge of a team called Group North. Yakushkin
put more emphasis and money into clandestine operations and was rewarded
when they turned Ames into a double agent. Ames, who had worked for
the CIA since 1962, and whose main duties had included contacting
Soviet sources, was the crown jewel for Group North. His information
destroyed almost the whole US intelligence program in Russia. Later,
a Senate Intelligence Committee issued a report that harshly criticized
the CIA leadership for their negligence in allowing Ames to get away
with his subterfuge for so long. Aldrich
Ames would be sentenced to life in prison; his wife to 5 years.

^1967
Suharto becomes dictator of Indonesia.
Indonesian President Achmad Sukarno surrenders all executive authority
to Indonesian premier and military dictator General Suharto, remaining
president in title only. Two years earlier, General Suharto, the Indonesian
army chief of staff, led the army in suppressing a Communist coup
against President Sukarno. Following the failed coup, Suharto and
his officers sought out Communist suspects across the country, killing
scores and arresting thousands. Over the next two years, Suharto gradually
took over the reins of government from Sukarno, and in 1967, assumed
full executive power. Elected as president in 1968, and reelected
every five years since, Suharto stabilized his nation and oversaw
its economic progress, but was highly criticized for his 1975 invasion
of Timor, which left an estimated 200,000 Timorese dead from famine,
disease, or warfare.

1967
Counterattack against Communists around Saigon begins
Operation Junction City is started
to ease pressure on Saigon. It was an effort to smash the Viet Cong's
stronghold in Tay Ninh Province and surrounding areas along the Cambodian
border northwest of Saigon. The purpose of the operation was to drive
the Viet Cong away from populated areas and into the open, where superior
American firepower could be more effectively used. In the largest
operation of the war to date, four South Vietnamese and 22 US battalions
were involved  more than 25'000 soldiers. The first day's operation
was supported by 575 aircraft sorties, a record number for a single
day in South Vietnam. The operation was marked by one of the largest
airmobile assaults in history when 240 troop-carrying helicopters
descended on the battlefield. There were 2728 enemy casualties by
the end of the operation on March 17.

^1965
US General in Vietnam asks for Marines
General William Westmoreland, commander of Military Assistance Command
Vietnam, cables Washington, DC, to request that two battalions of
US Marines be sent to protect the US airbase at Da Nang. Ambassador
Maxwell Taylor, aware of Westmoreland's plan, disagreed and cabled
President Lyndon B. Johnson from Saigon to warn that such a step would
encourage South Vietnam to "shuck off greater responsibilities." The
Joint Chiefs of Staff, however, supported Westmoreland's request and
on 26 February, White House officials cabled Taylor and Westmoreland
that the troops would be sent, and that Taylor should "Secure GVN
[Government of South Vietnam] approval." General Westmoreland later
insisted that he did not regard his request as "the first step in
a growing American commitment," but by 1969 there were over 540'000
American troops in South Vietnam.

^1946
US envoy in Moscow recommends cold war policies to US.
George Kennan, the American chargé
d'affaires in Moscow, sends an 8000-word telegram to the Department
of State detailing his views on the Soviet Union, and US policy toward
the communist state. Kennan's analysis provided one of the most influential
underpinnings for America's Cold War policy of containment. Kennan
was among the US diplomats to help establish the first American embassy
in the Soviet Union in 1933. While he often expressed respect for
the Russian people, his appraisal of the communist leadership of the
Soviet Union became increasingly negative and harsh. Throughout World
War II he was convinced that President Franklin D. Roosevelt's spirit
of friendliness and cooperation with Soviet leader Joseph Stalin was
completely misplaced. Less than a year after Roosevelt's death, Kennan,
then serving as US charge d'affaires in Moscow, released his opinions
in what came to be known as the "long telegram." The lengthy memorandum
began with the assertion that the Soviet Union could not foresee "permanent
peaceful coexistence" with the West. This "neurotic view of world
affairs" was a manifestation of the "instinctive Russian sense of
insecurity." As a result, the Soviets were deeply suspicious of all
other nations and believed that their security could only be found
in "patient but deadly struggle for total destruction of rival power."
Kennan was convinced that the
Soviets would try to expand their sphere of influence, and he pointed
to Iran and Turkey as the most likely immediate trouble areas. In
addition, Kennan believed the Soviets would do all they could to "weaken
power and influence of Western Powers on colonial backward, or dependent
peoples." Fortunately, although the Soviet Union was "impervious to
logic of reason," it was "highly sensitive to logic of force." Therefore,
it would back down "when strong resistance is encountered at any point."
The United States and its allies, he concluded, would have to offer
that resistance. Kennan's telegram caused a sensation in Washington.
Stalin's aggressive speeches and threatening gestures toward Iran
and Turkey in 1945-1946 led the Truman administration to decide to
take a tougher stance and rely on the nation's military and economic
muscle rather than diplomacy in dealing with the Soviets. These factors
guaranteed a warm reception for Kennan's analysis. His opinion that
Soviet expansionism needed to be contained through a policy of "strong
resistance" provided the basis for America's Cold War diplomacy through
the next two decades. Kennan's diplomatic career certainly received
a boost  he was named US ambassador to the Soviet Union in 1952.

^1942
US evacuation of the Philippines is ordered.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders
Gen. Douglas MacArthur out of the Philippines, as the US defense of
the islands collapses. The Philippines had been part of the US commonwealth
since it was ceded by Spain at the close of the Spanish-American War.
When the Japanese invaded China in 1937 and signed the Tripartite
Pact with fascist nations Germany and Italy in 1940, the United States
responded by, among other things, strengthening the defense of the
Philippines. General MacArthur was called out of retirement to command
10'000 US Army troops, 12'000 Filipino enlisted men who fought as
part of the US Army, and 100'000 Filipino army soldiers, who were
poorly trained and ill prepared. MacArthur radically overestimated
his troops' strength and underestimated Japan's determination. The
Rainbow War Plan, a defensive strategy for US interests in the Pacific
that was drawn up in the late 1930s and later refined by the War Department,
required that MacArthur withdraw his troops into the mountains of
the Bataan Peninsula and await better-trained and -equipped US reinforcements.
Instead, MacArthur decided to take the Japanese head on  and
he never recovered. On the day of the Pearl Harbor bombing, the Japanese
destroyed almost half of the US aircraft based in the Philippines.
Amphibious landings of Japanese troops along the Luzon coast followed.
By late December, MacArthur had to pull his forces back defensively
to the Bataan Peninsula  the original strategy belatedly pursued.
By 02 January 1942, the Philippine capital of Manila fell to the Japanese.
President Roosevelt had to admit to himself (if not to the US people,
who believed that the US troops were winning the battle with the Japanese
in the Philippines), that the prospects for the US forces were not
good  and that he could not afford to have General MacArthur
fall captive to the Japanese. A message arrived at Corregidor on February
20, ordering MacArthur to leave immediately for Mindanao, then on
to Melbourne, Australia, where "You will assume command of all United
States troops." MacArthur at first balked; he was fully prepared to
fight alongside his men to the death if necessary. MacArthur finally
obeyed the president's order in March.

^1924
First radio speech from the White House
In Washington, DC, US President Calvin Coolidge becomes the first
president to deliver a radio broadcast from the White House. Coolidge’s
speech, commemorating the 192nd anniversary of George Washington’s
birth, is broadcast from his White House study and heard live on forty-two
radio stations from coast to coast. In 1921, Coolidge’s predecessor,
Warren G. Harding, was the first president to ever have a speech broadcast
on the radio. On November 5, 1921, a presidential message from Harding
was broadcast in code from Washington, DC, to twenty-eight countries.
The message was related to the imminent Washington Conference for
Limitation of Armament, which opened in the nation’s capital six days
later.

^1923
The 1'000'000th Chevrolet is produced.
Chevrolet began when William Durant hired Louis Chevrolet, a Swiss
racecar driver and star of the Buick Racing Team, to design a new
car. Durant hoped to challenge the success of the Ford Model T with
an affordable, reliable car. Chevrolet wanted to design a finer sort
of automobile, however. Their product, the Classic Six, was an elegant
car with a large price tag. But Durant built two more models, sturdier
and cheaper, and Chevy was on its way. Durant eventually made over
a million dollars in profits on his Chevrolet marque, money that allowed
him to reacquire a majority interest in GM stock. Durant eventually
merged the two companies and created GM’s current configuration. Louis
Chevrolet left the company before the merger, leaving only his name
to benefit from the company’s success.

^1918
Montana, in war hysteria, passes law against sedition
Swept along by hysterical fears of
treacherous German spies and domestic labor violence, the Montana
legislature passes a Sedition Law that severely restricts freedom
of speech and assembly. Three months later, Congress adopted a federal
Sedition Act modeled on the Montana law. The roots of the Montana
Sedition Law lay with the hyper-patriotic sentiments inspired by World
War I and growing fears of labor unrest and violence in the state.
A sizeable number of Montanans had resisted American entry in WWI,
and the Montana congresswoman Jeanette Rankin (the first women elected
to Congress) had voted against US involvement in the Great War. Once
the US did become involved, though, many pro-war Montanans viewed
any further criticism of the war effort as treasonous-especially if
it came from the state's sizeable German-American population. At the
same time, the perceived need for wartime unity sharpened many Montanans'
distrust of radical labor groups like the socialist International
Workers of the World (IWW). The Montana mining town of Butte had been
rocked by labor violence in recent years.
In 1914, a group of men who may have been IWW members destroyed the
offices of an opposing union with dynamite. An IWW leader named Frank
Little had also recently given speeches in Butte condemning American
involvement in the war, claiming it was being fought for big business
interests. Determined to silence both antiwar and radical union voices,
the Montana legislature approved a Sedition Law that made it illegal
to criticize the federal government or the armed forces during time
of war. Even disparaging remarks about the American flag could be
grounds for prosecution and imprisonment.
Through the efforts of Montana's two senators, the act also became
the model for the federal Sedition Law of May 1918. Like the Montana
law, the federal act made it a crime to speak or write anything critical
of the American war effort. Later widely viewed as the most sweeping
violation of civil liberties in modern American history, the federal
Sedition Law led to the arrests of 1500 American citizens. Crimes
included denouncing the draft, criticizing the Red Cross, and complaining
about wartime taxes. The Montana
law led to the conviction and imprisonment of 47 people, some with
prison terms of 20 years or more. Most were pardoned when the war
ended and cooler heads prevailed, but the state and federal Sedition
Laws proved highly effective in destroying the IWW and other radical
labor groups that had long attacked the federal government as the
tool of big business. Since many of these radicals were vocal opponents
of much of the government wartime policy, they bore the brunt of the
Sedition Law rebukes, and suffered sorely as a result.

^1917
US Congress appropriates $250 million to prepare for war with Germany
The US Congress passes a $250 million
arms appropriations bill intended to make the United States ready
for war with Germany, which, on 31 January had announced the renewal
of unlimited submarine warfare in the Atlantic German torpedo-armed
submarines were prepared to attack any and all ships, including
civilian passenger carriers, said to be sited in war-zone waters.
On 03 February, the United States broke diplomatic relations with
Germany, and just hours after that the American liner Housatonic
was sunk by a German U-boat. None of the 25 US nationals on board
was killed, and all were later picked up by a British steamer.
When World War I erupted in 1914,
President Woodrow Wilson had pledged neutrality for the United States,
a position that the vast majority of Americans favored. Britain,
however, was one of America's closest trading partners, and tension
soon arose between the United States and Germany over the latter's
attempted quarantine of the British isles. Several US ships traveling
to Britain were damaged or sunk by German mines, and in February
1915 Germany announced unrestricted warfare against all ships, neutral
or otherwise, that entered the war zone around Britain.
One month later, Germany announced
that a German cruiser had sunk the William P. Frye, a private
American vessel that was transporting grain to England when it disappeared.
President Wilson was outraged, but the German government apologized
and called the attack an unfortunate mistake. The Germans' most
formidable naval weapon was the U-boat, a submarine far more sophisticated
than those built by other nations at the time. The typical U-boat
was 65 m long, carried 35 men and 12 torpedoes, and could travel
underwater for two hours at a time. In the first few years of World
War I, the U-boats took a terrible toll on Allied shipping. In early
May 1915, several New York newspapers published a warning by the
German embassy in Washington that Americans traveling on British
or Allied ships in war zones did so at their own risk. The announcement
was placed on the same page as an advertisement of the imminent
sailing of the British-owned Lusitania ocean liner from New York
to Liverpool.
On 07 May, the Lusitania
was torpedoed without warning just off the coast of Ireland. Of
the 1959 passengers, 1198 were killed, including 128 Americans.
The German government maintained that the Lusitania was carrying
munitions, but the US demanded reparations and an end to German
attacks on unarmed passenger and merchant ships. In August, Germany
pledged to see to the safety of passengers before sinking unarmed
vessels but in November sunk an Italian liner without warning, killing
272 people, including 27 Americans. Public opinion in the United
States began to turn irrevocably against Germany. In 1917, Germany,
determined to win its war of attrition against the Allies, announces
the resumption of unrestricted warfare.
On 24 February, British authorities
gave the US ambassador to Britain a copy of the "Zimmermann Note,"
a coded message from German foreign secretary Arthur Zimmermann
to Count Johann von Bernstorff, the German ambassador to Mexico.
In the telegram, intercepted and deciphered by British intelligence,
Zimmermann stated that, in the event of war with the United States,
Mexico should be asked to enter the conflict as a German ally. In
return, Germany promised to restore to Mexico the lost territories
of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. On 01 March, the US State Department
published the note, and US public opinion was galvanized against
Germany. In late March, Germany sunk four more US merchant ships,
and on 02 April President Wilson appeared before Congress and called
for a declaration of war against Germany. On 04 April the Senate
voted 82 to six to declare war against Germany. Two days later,
the House of Representatives endorsed the declaration by a vote
of 373 to 50, and the US entered World War I.
On 26 June the first 14'000 US infantrymen
landed in France to begin training for combat. After four years
of bloody stalemate along the western front, the entrance of America's
well-supplied forces into the conflict was a major turning point
in the war. When the war finally ended, on 11 November 1918, more
than two million American soldiers had served on the battlefields
of Western Europe, and some 50'000 of these men had lost their lives.

1917 Los socialdemócratas, liberales de izquierda y
nacional liberales exigen en el Reichstag que se adopte el sistema de Gobiernos
parlamentarios.1916 I Guerra Mundial: Las fuerzas
rusas se baten en retirada en la región de los lagos Masurianos ante la
ofensiva alemana del general Hindenburg.1916 Alemania
declara la guerra submarina total en aguas británicas, en respuesta a las
medidas de bloqueo del Reino Unido.1915 Germany
begins "unrestricted" submarine war. 1909 Great
White Fleet, first US fleet to circle the globe, returns to Virginia 1907 first cabs with taxi meters begin operating in London
1903 Due to drought the US side of Niagara Falls
runs short of water 1900 Battle at Wynne's Hill,
South-Africa (Boers vs British army) 1900 Hawaii
became a US territory 1889 President Cleveland
signs bill to admit Dakotas, Montana and Washington state to the Union. 1887 Union Labor Party organized in Cincinnati 1879 first 5¢ and 10¢ store opened by Frank W Woolworth
in Utica NY 1878 Greenback Labor Party formed
(Toledo OH) 1872 first national convention of
the Prohibition Party (Columbus OH) 1872 Labor
Reform Party formed at Columbus OH 1865 Tennessee
adopts a new constitution abolishing slavery 1865
Battle of Wilmington NC (Fort Anderson) occupied by Federals.1865
Wilmington, North Carolina, is captured by Union forces.1865
Joseph E. Johnston is placed in command of Confederate forces trying to
oppose Sherman's march through the Carolinas. 1864
Battle of Okolona, Mississippi, ends on its 2nd day. 1864
Battle at Dalton, Georgia 1864 Skirmish
at Calfkiller Creek (Sparta) Tennessee 1862 Jefferson
Davis is inaugurated as President of the Confederate States of America

^1862
Lincoln orders armies to advance US
President Lincoln issues General War Order No. 1, ordering all land
and sea forces to advance on 22 February 1862. This bold move sent
a message to his commanders that the president was tired of excuses
and delays in seizing the offensive against Confederate forces. The
unusual order was the product of a number of factors. Lincoln had
a new Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, who replaced the hopelessly
corrupt Simon Cameron. Lincoln was much more comfortable with Stanton.
The president had also been brushing up on his readings in military
strategy. Lincoln felt that if enough force were brought to bear on
the Confederates simultaneously, the Confederates would break.
This was a simple plan that ignored
a host of other factors, but Lincoln felt that if the Confederates
"...weakened one to strengthen another," the Union could step in and
"seize and hold the one weakened." The primary reason for the order,
however, was General George McClellan, commander of the Army of the
Potomac in the east. McClellan had a deep contempt for Lincoln that
had become increasingly apparent since Lincoln appointed McClellan
in July 1861. McClellan had shown great reluctance to reveal his plans
to the president, and he exhibited no signs of moving his army in
the near future. Lincoln wanted
to convey a sense of urgency to all the military leaders, and it worked
in the West. Union armies in Tennessee began to move, and General
Ulysses S. Grant captured Forts Henry and Donelson on the Tennessee
and Cumberland rivers, respectively. McClellan, however, did not respond.
Lincoln's order called for strict accountability for each commander
who did not follow the order, but the president had to handle McClellan
carefully. Because McClellan had the backing of many Democrats and
he had whipped the Army of the Potomac into fine fighting shape over
the winter, Lincoln had to give McClellan a chance to command in the
field.

1856 first national meeting of the Republican Party (Pittsburgh) 1854 first meeting of the Republican Party, Michigan.

^1847
Battle of Buena Vista begins
During the Mexican-American War, Mexican General Santa Anna surrounds
the outnumbered forces of US General Zachary Taylor at the Angostura
Pass in Mexico, and demands an immediate surrender. As Taylor refuses,
allegedly replying "Tell him to go to hell," Santa Anna dispatches
some 15'000 soldiers against the 5000 US soldiers early the next morning.
The superior US artillery is able to halt one of the two advancing
Mexican divisions, while Jefferson Davis’s Mississippi riflemen lead
the defense of the extreme left flank, ending the other Mexican advance.
By five o’clock in the afternoon, the Mexicans begin to withdraw.
The Mexican-American War began with a dispute over the US government’s
1845 annexation of Texas. In January of 1846, President James K. Polk,
a strong advocate of westward expansion, ordered General Zachary Taylor
to occupy disputed territory between the Nueces and Rio Grande rivers.
Mexican troops attacked Taylor’s forces, and on 13 May 1846, Congress
approved a declaration of war against Mexico. At Buena Vista in February
of 1847, and at Monterrey in September, Taylor proved a brilliant
military commander, earning the nickname "Old Rough and Ready," while
emerging from the war a national hero. He won the Whig presidential
nomination in 1848, and defeated the Democratic candidate, Lewis Cass,
in November. The other hero of the Battle of Buena Vista, Jefferson
Davis, becomes secretary of war under President Franklin Pierce in
1853 and president of the Confederate States of America.

^1819
The US acquires Spanish Florida
Spanish minister Do Luis de Onis and US Secretary of State John Quincy
Adams sign the Florida Purchase Treaty, in which Spain agrees to cede
the remainder of its old province of Florida to the United States.
Spanish colonization of the Florida peninsula was initiated at St.
Augustine in 1565. Although the Spanish colonists enjoyed a brief
period of relative stability, by the seventeenth century Spanish Florida
was under frequent attack from resentful Native Americans and ambitious
English colonists to the north. Spain’s last-minute entry into the
French and Indian War on the side of France cost it Florida, which
the British acquired through the first Treaty of Paris in 1763. However,
after twenty years of British rule, Florida was returned to Spain
as part of the second Treaty of Paris ending the American Revolution
in 1783. Spain’s hold over Florida, however, was tenuous in this period,
and numerous boundary disputes developed with the United States. In
1819, after years of negotiations, Secretary of State John Quincy
Adams won a diplomatic coup with the signing of the Florida Purchase
Treaty, which officially put Florida into US hands at no cost beyond
the US assumption of some five million dollars of claims by US citizens
against Spain. Formal US occupation began in 1821 and General Andrew
Jackson was appointed military governor. Florida was organized as
a US territory in 1822, and was admitted into the Union as a slave
state in 1845.

1813 Las Cortes españolas abolen el Tribunal del Santo
Oficio en las colonias americanas.1784 First US
ship to trade with China, Empress of China, sails from New York. 1775 Jews expelled from outskirts of Warsaw Poland 1775 First US joint stock company (to make cloth) offers
shares at £10 1746 French troops conquer Brussels
1744 Battle at Toulon English-French and Spanish fleet.1689
Guillermo de Orange y María Estuardo aceptan el ofrecimiento del trono inglés. 1630 Contrary to pop culture, Amerindian Quadequina,
brother of Wampanoag chief Massasoit, did
not introduce the Pilgrims (English colonists in America) to popcorn,
at their first Thanksgiving dinner. This poppycock originated from this
passage of the 1889 novel Standish of Standish by Jane
Goodwin Austin [25 Feb 1831 – 30 Mar 1894]: [Quadequina’s
attendant pours onto a table] “something like a bushel of popped corn,
a dainty hitherto unseen and unknown by most of the Pilgrims. All tasted,
and John Howland, hastily gathering up a portion upon a wooden plate, carried
it up to the Common house for the delectation of the women, that is to say,
for Elizabeth Tilley, whose firm young teeth craunched it with much gusto.”
Actually the only historic description of the first Thanksgiving (fall of
1621) comes from Mourt’s Relation (1622), in which there
is no mention of popcorn.1530 Carlos I de España y
V de Alemania es coronado emperador en Roma por el Papa.
1495 French King Charles VIII enters Naples to claim the crown 1349 Jews are expelled from Zurich Switzerland 1300 Pope Boniface VIII delegates degree
1288 Girolamo Masci elected Pope Nicolas IV 1281
Simon de Brion elected Pope Martin IV 1198
Pope Innocent III, who would make the strongest claims for the papacy of
the Middle Ages, is consecrated. Under his pontificate the Church affirmed
that the Eucharist is Christ's body and blood.1076
Pope Gregory (Hildebrand) excommunicates all who attended the Diet of Worms
which "deposed" him at Emperor Henry II's instigation. 0896
Pope Formosus crowns as emperor king Arnulf of Karinthie/French,
who had just conquerered Rome.0506 Alarico II, rey
visigodo, promulga la Lex Romana Visigothorum o Breviario de Alarico II,
que resumía toda la legislación aplicable a sus súbditos hispanorromanos
y galorromanos. 0057 -BC- Origin of Vikrama Samvat
Era (India)

2005
Some 800 persons by magnitude 6.4 earthquake at 05:55 (02:25 UT)
with epicenter 14 km deep at 30º44'N 56º49'E, on the outskirts
of Zarand, Kerman province, Iran. About 2000 persons are injured. Zarand
(15'000 inhabitants) is about 250 km from Bam, where the 26 December 2003
magnitude 6.6 earthquake killed about 40'000 persons. The population is
less dense in the mountainous area devastated today, which has some 30'000
inhabitants and in which at least 40 villages are damaged. 2004
Lior Azulai, 18, who studied at the Gymnasia Rehavia high school
in Jerusalem; Nathaniel Havshush, 20, a Staff Sergeant
in the Israel Defense Forces; Bnayahu Jonathan Zuckerman,
18, who studied at the Experimental School of Jerusalem; Yehuda
Haim, 48, store owner from Givat Ze'ev; Yuval Ozana,
31, of Jerusalem; Ilan Avisedris, 41, of Jerusalem; Yaffa
Ben-Shimol, 57, woman from Jerusalem; Rahamiam Rami Duga,
37, from Mevasseret Zion; and suicide bomber Mohammed Za'el,
23, of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, from village Hussan near Bethlehem;
in Egged bus #14 at 08:30 (06:30 UT) in the Rehavia neighborhood, close
to Liberty Bell Park, Jerusalem. 72 persons are wounded.2003
Yésica “Jesica” Santillán, 17, of brain
swelling and hemorrhage, after having received on 07 February 2003 a heart-lung
transplant of an incompatible blood type, replaced by a correct one in a
second operation on 20 February 2003, at Duke University Medical Center
in Durham NC. Jesica, born in Tamazula (Jalisco), Mexico, had a defective
heart (restrictive cardiomyopathy) and had come undocumented with her family
to the US in 2000 in the hope of being treated. She had waited since then
for a suitable heart-lung transplant. [2001 photo: Yésica presses
her handprints into cement surrounding the first “Jesica's House,”
in Louisburg, NC, built mostly with volunteer labor and donated materials,
to be sold to benefit Jesica's
Hope Chest, a foundation started for Yésica and extended to other
critically ill children >]2003 Juan Patricio
Peraza Quijada, 19, at 08:55 (15:55 UT) shot in the abdomen and
in the arm by Border Patrol agents after he ran when they approached him
as he was taking out the trash of Annunciation House at 1003 East San Antonio
Avenue, in El Paso, Texas, a shelter for undocumented immigrants where he
had been staying for a few weeks after crossing over from Mexico without
documents. The killer agents would claim that he threw a ladder and brandished
a pipe.2003 Sami Halawi, 42, and Walid el-Masri, 22, Palestinians,
shot in the casbah of Nablus, West Bank, by Israeli soldiers. Halawi is
shot at the entrance to his home, the Israelis say that he left his home
during a curfew and was holding a large suspicious object. El-Masri is shot
in the head during clashes between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers (none
of which is hurt) who say that he threw a firebomb at them from the roof
of a home. The Reuters body count of the al-Aqsa intifada is now “at
least“ 1862 Palestinians and 705 Israelis.2003 At least
six civilians, including one man, two women and three children,
in crossfire between supporters of rival warlords Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum,
an ethnik Uzbek, and Gen. Atta Mohammed, an ethnic Tajik, near Maimana,
capital of Faryab province, Afghanistan. The central government of President
Hamid Karzai has little control outside Kabul (which is policed by foreign
troops). Most of the country is split up between feuding warlords. So much
for Pax Americana.2003 Nine Shia Muslims when three
masked attackers fire on worshipers heading for evening prayers to the Imambargah
(= Shiite mosque) Mehdi in al-Palah, in the Malir area near the airport
of Karachi, Pakistan. The attackers are suspected to belong to the outlawed
Laskhar-e-Jahngvi, the death squad of the terrorist Sipah-e-Sahaba (“Army
of the Companions”), which Shias
believe are of their ancestral mortal enemies, the Saudi-financed Wahabis
(= Deobandis), who pretend to belong to Pakistan's Sunni majority, and permeate
the Pakistani Army's intelligence service since the 05~Jul~1977 to 17~Aug~1988
dictatorship of Wahabi General Muhammad
Zia-ul-Haq [12 Aug 1924 – 17 Aug 1988]. [Shia
News .com] [4
main Islamic groups]2002 Gordon Matthews, 65,
of complications of a 20 Feb stroke, inventor of voice mail, founding a
company that would become VMX Inc. (Voice Message Express).
In the 1980's the equipment, which might fill part of a room, would cost
$180'000 for 20 hours of recording capacity, down to $13'000 by 1992.2002 Valerie Achmir, 56, Israeli from Beit Shemesh, shot
from a passing car as he was driving alone on the West Bank road between
Atarot and Givat Ze'ev, north of Jerusalem, in the direction of Givat Ze'ev.2002 Mohammed Tawfiq Shamali, 24, Palestinian from the
village of Douha, next to Bethlehem, West Bank, shot by an armed shopper
after Shamali set off a small explosion but failed to fully detonate his
explosive belt, in a supermarket in the Jewish enclave settlement of Efrat,
where Shamali was a construction worker who had a permit to reside inside
Israel. 2002 Jonas Malheiro Savimbi, at 15:00, in
a fight with Angolan government forces, in Moxico province. Born on 03 August
1934, Savimbi
founded in 1966 the independentist organization UNITA (União Nacional
para a Independência Total de Angola), which, supported by the US
and apartheid South Africa, had fought for independence along with rival
rebel groups including the Soviet-backed Marxist MPLA (Movimento Popular
para a Libertação de Angola) which took power after Portugal
granted independence on 15 January 1975, and which UNITA kept fighting.
A 01 May 1991 peace accord between the MPLA government and UNITA was broken
after UNITA refused to accept the results of September 1992 elections. A
20 November 1994 peace treaty did not hold either.

2001
Josu Leonet Azkona, 31, and José Angel Santos Larranaga, 40,
by explosives rigged to a car parked about 200 m from the train station
in San Sebastian, Vascuña, and set off by remote control at
about 08:00, just as workers were arriving for jobs in the industrial
neighborhood. This is thought to be the work of ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna).
Leonet is thought to have been a member of Euskal Herritarrok, ETA's
political wing He and Santos were co-worker at Electra, an electrical
component and installation company. Among four injured were Ignacio
"Inaki" Dubrueil Churruca, 40, a Socialist councilor from nearby Ordizia,
and his bodyguard. Dubrueil may have been the target of the blast.
He teaches at an institute in San Sebastian and arrives regularly
at that hour by train.  José Ángel Santos y Josu Leonet,
empleados de la empresa Elektra, fallecen en San Sebastián en un atentado
con coche bomba perpetrado por ETA.

2000
Jake Robel [28 Nov 1993–], dragged stuck in seatbelt outside
his mother's car driven away by thief Kim L. Davis, 34. Jake's mom, Christy
Robel, stopped at a sandwich and pasta shop on Missouri 291 in Independence
at 15:45 (21:45 UT) to buy a drink for Jake. As Christy was standing in
line, a customer told her that someone was stealing her SUV. Christy ran
out the dorr. She tried to get Jake out of the car but Jake became tangled
up in the seatbelt. Christy had tried to tell the person stealing her SUV
that her son was in the vehicle. The man pulled out of the parking spot
without listening to Christy. Christy ended up being dragged a short distance
before she let go. The man sped up in the SUV with Jake hanging out the
door. Jake was dragged down southbound Missouri 291. The driver then exited
Missouri 291 to westbound I-70. On I-70, several drivers began to notice
a child that was being dragged. They tried to get the driver to stop by
flashing their lights. But, the driver kept on going down the interstate.
At least three vehicles chased the stolen vehicle. It is estimated that
the driver reached speeds of 130 km/h. Jake was dragged 8 km. He died before
the vehicle came to a stop at Noland Road and Lynn Court in Independence.
At the red light, three vehicles cornered the stolen vehicle. Someone dragged
Kim Davis out of the vehicle. Several people held him until police arrived.
Kim Davis had just been released from the Carroll County (Missouri) jail.
He should not have been released from jail that day because he had an outstanding
warrant. Kim Davis has been charged with second-degree murder and other
charges. Jake's Law was signed into law in May 2001: any police jurisdiction
willfully not checking for warrants on a prisoner being released faces a
fine of $200. On 16 November 2001, Kim Davis was sentenced to life in prison
without possibility of parole. Other children have died in the same way
as Jake, including João Hélio Fernandes
Vieites, 6, in a Rio de Janeiro suburb on 07 February 2007. —(070213)
2000 Fernando Buesa (y su escolta), portavoz del grupo
socialista en el Parlamento vasco, en el segundo atentado de ETA tras la
ruptura de la tregua.1998 José
María Areilza y Martínez Rodas, político español.1995 At least 99 prison rioters, killed by Algiers police.1987 Andy Warhol, in a New York City hospital, US Pop
artist born on 06 August 1928. Author of The Philosophy of Andy Warhol
(1975), Portraits of the Seventies (1979), Andy Warhol's Exposures
(1979).  MORE ON WARHOL
AT ART 4 FEBRUARY with links to
images.1985 Salvador
Espriu i Castello, escritor catalán.
1984 Newman,
mathematician. 1983 Some 3000 Moslems killed by Hindus,
in Assam.1982 René
Jules Dubos, ecologista y bacteriólogo francés.1980
Oskar Kokoschka, Austrian Expressionist
painter born on 01 March 1886.  MORE ON KOKOSCHKA
AT ART 4 FEBRUARY with links to
images.1975 Perron,
mathematician. 1973: 106 persons, as Israeli fighter
planes shoot down a Libyan commercial airliner. 1973 Winthrop
Rockefeller, 60, US Governor (Arkansas)1958 Mathurin
Méheut, French artist born in 1882. 1948
Some 50 persons in Arab terrorist bomb attack in Jerusalem. 1944 More than 800 persons bombed by mistake in Enschede,
Arnhem and Nijmegen, by US 8th Air Force.

1939 Antonio Machado y Ruiz, Spanish poet and playwright,
born on 26 July 1875. — biografía
— (060210)1933 Some 50 persons shot by SA/SS-police,
as Göring forms it. 1913 Ferdinand Mongin de Saussure,
Geneva Swiss linguist born on 26 November 1857. His ideas on structure in
language laid the foundation for much of the approach to and progress of
the linguistic sciences in the 20th century. — (060210)
1913 Francisco Indalécio Madero, Mexican President, born
on 30 October 1873, assassinated in military coup led by Victoriano Huerta
[23 Dec 1854 – 13 Jan 1916]. — (060210)1906 Adrien
Moreau, French artist born on 18 April 1843. 1898
Black postmaster lynched, his wife and 3 daughters shot in Lake
City SC 1890 Carl Heinrich Bloch, Danish painter born
on 23 May 1834.  MORE ON BLOCH
AT ART 4 FEBRUARY with links to
images.1875 Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, French Realist
painter born on 16 July 1796  MORE ON COROT
AT ART 4 JULY with links
to images. 1832 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe poet,
Weimar, Germany.1827 Charles Wilson Peale, US painter
born on 15 April 1741.  MORE ON PEALE
AT ART 4 FEBRUARY with links to
images.1823 Jacques Albert Senave, Belgian artist
born on 12 September 1758.1810 Charles Brockden Brown, "Godwin",
escritor estadounidense. 1792 Nicolas-Guy Brenet,
French painter born on 30 June 1728.  MORE ON BRENET
AT ART 4 FEBRUARY with links to
images. 1687 Jean-Baptiste Lully Paris, composer.1681 Leendert van Cooghen, Dutch artist born in 1610 or
1632 {!!!}1677 Karel van der Pluym, Dutch artist
born in 1625. 1512 Amerigo Vespucci, 61, Italian
explorer (America) 1371 David II Bruce, 46, king
of Scotland (1331-1371). 1076 Godfried III with
the Hump, duke of Lower Lorraine, murdered 1072Saint
Peter Damian, born in 1007 in Ravenna, Italy, cardinal and
doctor of the church. He was an original leader and a forceful figure in
the 11th-century reform movement. Educated at Ravenna, Faenza, and Parma,
he abandoned his teaching career in 1035 to enter the hermitage of Fonte
Avellana in the Apennines, where he was chosen prior in 1043. Peter's zeal
for reform, particularly his advocacy of clerical celibacy and his attacks
on simony attracted attention. Made a cardinal in 1057, he served Popes
Stephen
IX (X) [– 29 Mar 1058], Nicholas
II, and Alexander
II [– 21 Apr 1075], whom he defended during the schism (28 Oct
1061 - 31 May 1064) of the antipope Honorius
II [1009-1072]. After 1067, in semiretirement at Fonte Avellana, Peter
Damian was still active in the cause of reform. He died after reconciling
Ravenna with Alexander II, who had excommunicated Henry, archbishop of Ravenna.
Peter was declared a doctor of the church in 1828. A conservative in political
and theological controversies, he often used strong language, thus reminding
his contemporaries of Saint Jerome. As an apostle of voluntary poverty,
he may be considered a forerunner of Saint
Francis of Assisi [1181 – 03 Oct 1226]. —(070225) 0606 Pope
Sabinian (604-606)

^1892
Edna St. Vincent Millay, poet
Edna St. Vincent Millay is born in Rockland, Maine. One of three daughters
of a divorced nurse, Millay learned independence and self-reliance
early, and transmitted those qualities to her poetry. She began publishing
poetry in high school. In 1912, the year she turned 20, her poem "Renascence"
appeared in a literary review and drew the attention of a benefactor
who made it possible for Millay to attend Vassar. The year she graduated,
in 1917, her first volume of poetry, Renascence and Other Poems, appeared.
Millay moved to New York City, where she lived a hectic, glamorous
life as a writer and actress in Greenwich Village. One of the first
women to write openly and without shame about her lovers, Millay had
numerous affairs. In 1920, her famous poem "First Fig" set the tone
for the 1920s, with its resounding lines, "My candle burns at both
ends, it will not last the night." Millay's fast-paced life took a
toll. Exhausted, she traveled to Europe for a long rest in 1921. There
she met and married Dutch importer Jan Boissevan, who gave up his
business to devote himself to Millay. In 1923, the couple moved to
a farm in upstate New York, where Millay continued to write verse
and plays. That year, she published The Harp Weaver and Other Poems,
for which she became the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize. A passionate
proponent of civil liberty, she was arrested and jailed for supporting
Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, anarchists condemned to death
for robbery and murder. In the 1930s, she wrote anti-totalitarian
poetry for newspapers, as well as radio plays and speeches. She suffered
a nervous breakdown in 1944 and endured two years of writer's block
afterward. She broke down again after her husband's death in 1949,
and she died of a heart attack on 19 October 1950.

1892 Lady
Windermere's Fan, play by Oscar Wilde, opens,
at London's St. James's Theater. Fingal
O'Flahertie Wills Oscar Wilde was born on 16 October 1854 and grew
up in Ireland. He went to England to attend Oxford, where he graduated
with honors in 1878. A popular society figure known for his wit and
flamboyant style, he published his own book of poems in 1881. He spent
a year lecturing on poetry in the United States, where his dapper
wardrobe and excessive devotion to art drew ridicule from some quarters.
After returning to Britain,
Wilde married and had two children, for whom he wrote delightful fairy
tales, which were published in 1888. Meanwhile, he wrote reviews and
edited Women's World. In 1890, his only novel, The
Picture of Dorian Gray, was published serially, appearing
in book form the following year. He wrote his first play, The Duchess
of Padua, in 1891 and wrote five more in the next four years. His
plays, including The
Importance of Being Earnest (1895), were successful and made
him a popular and well-known writer.
In 1895, the Marquess of Queensberry denounced Wilde as a homosexual,
accusing him of having an affair with the marquess's son. Wilde sued
for libel, but lost his case when evidence strongly supported the
marquess's observations. Homosexuality was classified as a crime in
England at the time. Wilde was arrested, found guilty, and sentenced
to two years of hard labor. Wilde was released from prison in 1897
and fled to Paris, where his many loyal friends visited him. He started
writing again, producing The
Ballad of Reading Gaol, based on his experiences in prison.
He died of on 30 November 1900 from an ear infection that had spread
to his brain turning into acute meningitis, in a Paris hotel room
after saying of the room's wallpaper: "One of us had to go."
Oscar Wilde won the Newdigate Prize
in 1878 with a long poem, Ravenna. In 1881 he published Poems.
In 1888 he published The
Happy Prince and Other Tales, a romantic allegory in the
form of a fairy tale. His only novel, The
Picture of Dorian Gray was published in 1890. In Intentions
(1891), he grouped previously published essays. In 1891 also, he published
two volumes of stories and fairy tales: Lord
Arthur Savile's Crime, and Other Stories and A
House of Pomegranates. Wilde is best known as the writer
of the plays Lady
Windermere's Fan, Salomé
(in French), A
Woman of No Importance, An
Ideal Husband and, above all, The
Importance of Being Earnest.
Other sites for WILDE ONLINE: Collected
Works  Lady
Windermere's Fan

^1879
The first Great 5 Cents Store.Frank
Winfield Woolworth [13 April 1852 – 08 Apr 1919] starts
a retail revolution by opening the Great 5 Cents Store in
Utica, New York. Pledging to sell "nothing" that costs more than a
nickel, Woolworth stocked his store with a great variety of goods,
ranging from items for the kitchen to beauty products. Though the
Utica store ultimately failed, Woolworth had success that same year
when he opened another discount variety store in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
The store, which was expanded to include items that cost up to a dime,
proved to be a fast success with Pennsylvanians and emboldened Woolworth
to establish a chain of discount stores. The dawn of 1890s saw Woolworth's
"five and ten" stores dot the East Coast of the US; by 1904 he had
opened some 120 stores in twenty-one states, including chunks of the
West and the District of Columbia. In 1911, he clinched his dominance
of the burgeoning variety store field by merging with four rival companies.
This gave Woolworth with a chain of 596 stores and, in 1912, he gave
them the now familiar name, F.W.
Woolworth. Woolworth’s stores continued to flourish during the
first half of the 20th century, but after World War II were the company
lost its supremacy. The sprawl of suburbs and the spread of malls,
together with the recent rise of super-sized discount rivals such
as Target and Wal-Mart, ultimately brought an end to Woolworth's.
In 1997, it closed its last 400 shops.
—(090827)

1870 Alejandro Pérez Lugín, Spanish novelist.1865 Otto Modersohn [–10 Mar 1943], German painter.
— more
—(090827)1864
Jules Renard France, writer (Poil de Carotte).1863 Pedro Morales Pino [–04 Mar 1926], Colombian
painter and musician.1857 Heinrich Hertz, radio pioneer. He was the first person
to send and receive radio waves. His studies of electromagnetic waves led
to a method of measuring the length and velocity of radio waves. The hertz,
a unit of frequency measurement, was named for him. 1857 Lord Robert Baden-Powell
founder (Boy Scouts, Girl Guides) 1850 Fyodor Aleksandrovich Vasil'yev [06 Oct 1873], Russian
landscape painter.  MORE ON VASIL'YEV
AT ART 4 FEBRUARY with links to
images. 1849 Sonin,
mathematician.1846 Giuseppe de Nittis [–24 Aug
1884], Italian painter. — more
—(090827)1840
August Bebel [–13 Aug 1913],
German co-founder of the Social Democratic Party.
1838 Pierre Jules Cesar Janssen, discoverer of hydrogen in Sun.1819 James Russell Lowell, US poet, critic, essayist and
diplomat who died on 12 August 1891. 1817 Borchardt,
mathematician. 1810 Frédéric-François Chopin
Polish / French pianist / composer (more than 200 compositions for solo
piano)1806 Antoine Joseph Wiertz, Belgian painter
who died on 18 June 1865.  MORE ON WIERTZ
AT ART 4 FEBRUARY with links to
images. 1797 William I Berlin, King of Prussia
(1861-1888) / German Emperor (1871-1888) 1796 Adolphe
Quetelet, mathematician. 1788 Arthur Schopenhauer
Germany, philosopher (Great Pessimist). He died on 21 September 1860.1778 Rembrandt Peale, US painter and writer. [portrait
of George Washington >]. Born on the 46th birthday of George
Washington (of whom he would paint many portraits) he was the son of Philadelphia
artist and museum proprietor Charles
Willson Peale, who died on Rembrandt Peale's 49th birthday.  MORE ON REMBRAND PEALE
AT ART 4 FEBRUARY with links to
images.1772 Karl Jacob Wagner composer.
1732 George
Washington, at his parents' plantation in the Virginia Colony,
truthful cherry tree chopper, slave owner, general, first US President (1789-97).
He died on 14 December 1799.  portrait of Washington
by Rembrandt Peale.1715 Charles-Nicolas Cochin the Younger,
French draftsman, engraver, and writer, who died on 29 April 1790.1649 Bon de Boullogne (or Boulogne), French artist who
died on 17
May 1717. 1440 Ladislaus V Posthumus, King of
Hungary/Bohemia.1403 Charles VII, king of France
(1422-1461), who drove out the English (with prodding from Jeanne d'Arc).
He died on 22 July 1461.

Thought for the day: The crude commercialism of America,
its materializing spirit are entirely due to the country having adopted for its
national hero a man who could not tell a lie.  Oscar Wilde,
Irish-born dramatist [16 Oct 1854 – 30 Nov 1900], whose commercialism was
not crude; and as to his spirit... well that's immaterial. — {Is that a
Wilde wild lie?}